Make combat less time consuming

[Xyquas]

I found that I'm spending most time of the combat phases with moving the ships to the desired position. There is currently no reasonable way to do this I just have to sit in front of the screen hacking the enter key for at least quarter of an hour to get those damn bastards in attack position. Speeding this up with auto combat mode is useless as ships don't attack enemy ships within the same sector (which is totally awkward).

So here is my suggestion: Add fleet commands to combat phase and a real fast forward mode.

1. Fleet commands
a) Attack >> Will cause the fleet to engage the closest enemy so I don't have to move it manually. This is number one choice in a fleet on fleet battle with only 1 fleet on each side.
b) Move to position >> This will move the whole fleet at once to a desired position so I don't have to click every single ship. This is a good choice for tactical combats where I have multiple fleets attacking multiple targets.
c) Avoid combat >> This will cause the fleet to move on the edge of the sector trying to stay out of battle. That's my choice for non combat ships like troop transports and colony ships when I want them to stay in sector.
d) Retreat >> Will cause the fleet to flee from battle at the shortest way possible (meaning to leave the sector). This choice is for non combat ships that find themselves facing warships accidentially which occasionally happens to my unarmed scouts.

Ship activation behavior for active fleet commands
For commands a) and b) only the first ship of a fleet will be activated every turn until the command is executed to give player the chance to change the command.
For commands c) and d) the ships are only activated if one of those ships is enganged by an enemy ship. This will not cancel the command automatically so player can decide that his ships are fast enough to escape. Unlucky crews if they aren't

UI for fleet commands
In the UI for a selected ship there is a tab control for the ship commands. I suggest using the (currently unused) second tab to switch to fleet commands and moving the "fleet focus" button at the bottom of the first tab to that second tab. This will give five buttons on the second tab which should fit really fine.

2. Fast forward mode
Currently auto combat is pretty limited. The only way to achieve my goals in combat face is to do everything manually - which is far too much time consuming especially in the late game phase where I have lot's of combats. So I want to have a fast forward mode that respects player's choices like the auto turn option on the galaxy map. This means the turns are switched automatically with the player's choices until something changes, for example a ship getting in weapons range of or being attacked by an enemy.

UI for fast forward
I suggest using the existing skip to end button for activating fast forward and changing the auto mode button behaviour to the current skip end button behaviour. You could add a checkbox next to the auto mode button for enabling it for future combats to get the current behaviour again. This feels more naturally for me as I lost more than one fleet because I wasn't fast enough in realizing that auto mode is still active from previous combat.

[Zaimat]

Streamlining the combat system is something we are very much considering. We are currently experimenting possible ways to do this with the existing system. If all goes well and as expected I should hopefully have some details in a week or two on the plan and we will open it up for further discussion.

I'll say this much for now. We don't want to add more controls to manage ships, in fact we want to reduce it. We also want to make it much more clear where combat is occurring on the galaxy map for the player, instead of jumping sector to sector.

[Xyquas]

Well, I just don't want to spend half of the game play with moving ships around manually. On the long run this would lead to not playing the game anymore, as auto combat is pretty useless because my ships never seem to attack an enemy in the same sector.

And I really hate spending 15 mins / combat with hitting enter. (I know I'm repetitive but that's the only part of the game that I find annoying )

[Xyquas]

I have an update for other players with the same problem:

You can save a lot of time with being 1-more-turn-patience. What I mean with this is the following:

1) Move fleets to a combat sector on galaxy map.
2) DO NOT activate the sector, but use the "orbit" command to move fleets within the sector as close to the desired target as possible.
ALTERNATIVE: If the target is an enemy colony, use the command "destroy colony".
3) Let auto combat mode do the movement now. This works as "orbit" or "destroy" levers a "move" command to the fleet.
4) Auto mode will stop as soon as the fleet get's fired upon. Now you can manually eliminate all enemy ships.
5) Use the "skip combat" button which reactivates auto mode but skips most of the animations so it's pretty quick done.
6) Use colony ships to acquire cleaned planets rather than invading and waiting for them to be rebuilt. This has the additional advantage that you can terraform those planets to your homeworld's planet type.

In the end, bombarding enemy planets to the total wipeout and re-colonizing them is less time consuming than invading. And as invading gives no additional bonus if you don't use enormous armies (> 300k), the colonizing approach is a real time saver.

PS: I miss the "telepathic control" option of MOO2

[keller]

What you suggest will work to a point. Assuming of course that the enemy doesn't engage the sector.

[Anguille]

Can't seem to find the order "retreat"...is there any? If not, this should be added.

Cheers

[keller]

while you can't exactly order your ships to retreat you can move them out of the sector , assuming of course that enemy ships do not follow you then you will have successfully retreated from the system.

[Zaimat]

I'm happy to report we are making good progress on the new combat management system which is being built on top of the existing system. I was hoping to discuss it sooner but first we had to work out some technical challenges and make sure it would all work well. Now that we have most of them, it's coming along very nicely.

The new system will allow for all of these:
- Instanced combat sector by sector, you can now control every battle synchronously
- Allied combat - fight with allies or defend them just as you could non-instanced
- Ships are pulled together in sector combat in fairly close range of each other so you can get into the fights quickly
- Galaxy map to pinpoint every battle location so you can make quick decisions whether to fight, auto-resolve, flee or do nothing
- Retreat option added and more..

We still have a bit of work but the plan is to open it up for those of you who want to have a go at it and help us with any feedback and testing before it goes live to the masses once we're happy with it.

[keller]

The new system will allow for all of these:
- Instanced combat sector by sector, you can now control every battle synchronously
- Allied combat - fight with allies or defend them just as you could non-instanced
- Ships are pulled together in sector combat in fairly close range of each other so you can get into the fights quickly
- Galaxy map to pinpoint every battle location so you can make quick decisions whether to fight, auto-resolve, flee or do nothing
- Retreat option added and more..

All I can say is that all these additions will be so awesome. now if only you would add that troops could be used like a fusion bomb (or any other weapon) and could be landed on the planet during combat it would be even more awesome

[Anguille]

I'm happy to report we are making good progress on the new combat management system which is being built on top of the existing system. I was hoping to discuss it sooner but first we had to work out some technical challenges and make sure it would all work well. Now that we have most of them, it's coming along very nicely.

The new system will allow for all of these:
- Instanced combat sector by sector, you can now control every battle synchronously
- Allied combat - fight with allies or defend them just as you could non-instanced
- Ships are pulled together in sector combat in fairly close range of each other so you can get into the fights quickly
- Galaxy map to pinpoint every battle location so you can make quick decisions whether to fight, auto-resolve, flee or do nothing
- Retreat option added and more..

We still have a bit of work but the plan is to open it up for those of you who want to have a go at it and help us with any feedback and testing before it goes live to the masses once we're happy with it.

That's an amazing list! Looking great.

[Bansheedragon]

I have to say the devs here continue to amaze me.
Thats quite a list and sounds like some very interesting additions.
Its a good game already and the devs, listen to feedback and just keep making it better.
Keep up the good work.

[Zaimat]

I have to say the devs here continue to amaze me.
Thats quite a list and sounds like some very interesting additions.
Its a good game already and the devs, listen to feedback and just keep making it better.
Keep up the good work.

Thanks!

All I can say is that all these additions will be so awesome. now if only you would add that troops could be used like a fusion bomb (or any other weapon) and could be landed on the planet during combat it would be even more awesome

We will try to get this in there next week as part of the new combat management system.

Speaking of which, we're working hard to have this available before this weekend for those who want to try it out ahead of the live release.

[Anguille]

Speaking of which, we're working hard to have this available before this weekend for those who want to try it out ahead of the live release.

And where could we get it? How would this work with steam (i am new to steam so have no idea).

[keller]

Whenever there is an update steam will automatically download the new version but I don't know about early releases ???

[Zaimat]

On Steam, right-clicking on a game and selecting properties provides you with a beta tab. Developers can set different branches here for access to different versions.

[keller]

Thanks for posting this information.

[Anguille]

Trying out the new system....